The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 7, 1925, Page 10

Present _ HE political life in China is being shaken by two events, the effects of which will be felt not only in China but also in the imperialist states. These are firstly the counter-revo- dutionary movement of the merchants and thé rich farmers of the south of China, where at the present moment the leader of the national-revolution- ary party, the Kuomintang, the fam- ous Sun-Yat-Sen, is in power; and secondly, the conflict. between the military governors of the provinces of central China, Chekyang and Kyansu. The Imperialist War Against the Na- tional Revolutionary Movement in the South of China. In order to understand these events. it is necessary to throw. light" on the facts which preceded them. At the pnd pt ‘August last, telegraphic com- dnunication.. was received from China al? all effect that the government of Sen had. captured a vessel a cargo of arms, traveling from a Y Bidek ‘port in, the principal city of ‘the Kwantung province for a British commeréial agent in China named Lin- Puck. This merchant is the head of a merchants’ militia, established to protect the property of the Chinese merchants in the Kwantung province. At a conference of this militia held in May, it was resolved to centraliz all the detachments. This was a symptom of the preparations being made by the Chinese merchants joint- ly with the rich farmers and with the support of the British imperialists for a rising against the national revo- lutionary party and against Sun-Yat- Sen. The relative strength of the Kuo- mintang government party and the merchant forces was such that Sun- Yat-Sen did not dare disarm these ounter-revolutionary detachments. Moreover, both the Kuomintang party and Sun-Yat-Sen himself, owing t their failure to understand the process of class differentiation taking place in, the social. basis, of, the.unational “movement, did not observe the serious danger this merchants’ militia repres- ented. Sun-Yat-Sen even believed that he could gradually subordinate these detachments to himself without hav- ing to resort to violence. He thought) he would be able to use theni in his fight against the reactionary general who was being supported by the Brit- ish imperialists. Sun-Yat-Sen did not. see the intel lectual connection between the reac- tionary movements of this general and the preparation being made for the rising of the merchants,-and for that reason he failed to see the organiza- tional connection betwen General A ap Ming’s staff and the staff of the merchant’s militia. He failed to take into account the fact that behind the whole of this counter-revolutionary movement in south China stood the government of J. Ramsay MacDonald; but the ‘seizure of the cargo of arms, the boycott or- ganized. by the merchants in Canton, the note despatched by the British consul to Sun-Yat-Sen’s civil gov- 1erner; and finally the arrival of British ieruiser@i'ands gun-boats in Canton ewaters,'revealed to Dr, Sun the count- er-revolutiofiary. conspiracy of: the Chinese. merchants and British im- perialists. In a telegram addressed to J. Ram- says MacDonald on Sept. 5, Sun-Yat- Sen says the following: “Dear Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the chief of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking corporation has organized a detachment of so-called fascists, | the object of which is to overthrow my government. This aim is to be achieved after these rebels have been well armed and with the aid of arms and munitions imported from Bu- rope on board the steamship Gaff. ‘This ‘stedmerarrived in Canton ‘on © Wth ‘Awegust,"and was immediately arrested by my government. Since othen a state of rebellion has arisen _ in Canton under the guise of a strike organized by rebels and other count- er-revolutionaries. When I decided to take measures against the rebels, the British counsel-general sent to my government the following letter: “‘T have received a communication oli tic a | from the commander of the British naval forces in which he informs me that he has orders from Hong Kong to the effect-that in the event of the Chinese authorities bombarding Can- ton, he was to take measures against them’ "In view “of the: diplomatic -and financial’ support’ which the British govérnment‘has constantly rendered to .the’ Chinese counter-revolution, and in view also of the fact that my government at the present time is the only centre of resistanee to this counter-revolution, I am compelled to conclude that the aim of this ulti- matum is to overthrow my govern- ment. I most strongly protest against this latest act of imperialist. intervention in the internal affairs of oo “SUN-YAT-SEN?” What principally caused the British imperialists to reveal their role as in- itiators of counter-revolution in China, was’ the consolidation “of the Chinese bourgéoisie side by side with the grow- ing revolutionary temper of the masses of the poor in the towns and the coun- tryside of southern China. The congress of workers and art- isans of Canton, with its two million population, which has held almost simultaneously with the congress of Chinese militia shows that the Chinese masses are rapidly acquiring class consciousness and will force the de- mocratic Kuomintang towards the left. The Kwantung province is import- ant as a revolutionary place d’armes not only for China but also for the islands on the coast of the Pacific, as was shown by the conference of Trans- port Workers of the Pacific, held in Canton last June, This could not but be takeg account of by the imperialists and particularly by the British im- perialists who are most interested in this part of China, and who have the most: “sensitive” colonizing apparatus. On the other hand the recognition by the central government of China in Peking (which has an Anglo-American orientation) (of the:Gevieb:gevernmentd in spite of the efforts of the imperial- ists to prevent it was beginning to have its effects thruout the whole of China in increasing the anti-imperial- ist movement in literally every prov- ince. The league to combat imperial- ism recently orgafhized caused a rush- ing tide of sympathy in favor of the national-liberation movement in the south of China, and a similar tide of hatred was set in motion against all the enslaving treaties of the imperial- ists which degraded and savagely ex- ploited the Chinese people. “Apparently, the British government decided by armed force to break the movement for emancipation in China. It had nothing good for itself to expect: in China in the near future, and there- fore hastened to apply force, not earing what methods were applied in its haste. What has been said represents only one aspect of the question and refers to south China, principally the Kwan- tung province, with its population of 30,000,000. Events in Central and North China Simultaneously with the events in south China a sanguinary struggle is being fought out in central China, and as is evident from latest telegraphic communications, the- principal forces of China are being drawn into it; from the. south centyaj, China and northern China, including, ‘also the three north- ern provinces of Manchuria. The im- mediate cause for the.quarrel between the military governors of Kyangsu Marshal Chi-Sun-Yang and the gov- ernor-general of the province of Chek- yan, Lu-Yung-Siang, is the aun over the administration of Shan, the most important commercial cer in China, having a population of one important’ strategic center in the China Sea. Shanghai is in the province of Ky- angsu, ‘but when the former military governor of this province became the governor of the netghboring province of Chekyan, he retained the adminis- trative control of Shanghai in his own hands, and appointed one of his ad- herents to the position of chief of The controversy between the governors of these two provinces over and a half ‘miilions, and is“the most }» the administration of Shanghai is of long standing, but until this moment it has never led to armed conflict. This is partly dué to the-fact that both Ky- angsu and Chekyan are the two richest provinces in the country, having ané enormous conimerce, and providing large revenues not only for the im- perialist but also for the Chinese merchants. The most important com- mercial. towns in modern China are also included in these provinces, such as Shanghai, Nanking, Chang-Chow and Hank-Chow. Consequently the outbreak of civil war in these prov- inces"would mean the severance of, one of the most important nerves of the commerce and industry of the country; To. the extent that the fight between. the Chinese generals depended upon the influence of the various imperial- dist groups, and to the extent also that the Chinese. commercial bourgeoisie could bring financial, pressure on these’ generals, they strove to remove the field of conflict from these provinces. . Sufficiently. strong causes. must be in dperation,-from.the point .of view of the imperialists, for them to permit the fight to open directly on these territories. It should be observed that the idea that it is as easy for the imperialists at the present day to set the various Chinese generals against each other, as it was soon after the revolution in 1911, is an erroneous one. Undoubted- ly, the partition of China into spheres of economic influence by the imperial- ists facilitates the wars between the Chinese military governors. But on the other hand, the imperialists back one or other of the warlords of China in accordance with the real strength he commands, and that is not always determined by the amount of support given by the imperialists, Civil war in China depends now not only on imperialist intervention but also on internal economic processes. Thus for instance, Sun-Yat-Sen’s base in southern China is consolidating more and more, while the base of the militarist Chan-Tso-Ling.in the three northern ‘cori prdvintées, is also be- coming more firmly established, thus establishing him as a military factor in the Chinese civil war. From the viewpoint of the national factors of China, the conflict between the two military governors of the prov- inces of Yyangsu and Chekyan may be looked upon as a conflict between the militarist Cihili clique on the one hand, and the Fyntiang clique to- gether with the adherents of the Anhui club on the other hand. Marshal Wu-Pei-Fu is at the head of the former He was formerly its military com- mander and is at present the official president of the Chinese republic of Tsao-Kung. The latter is headed by Marshal Chang-Tso-Ling and by the oldest politician of China—the react- ionary Tuan-Tsi-Chui. Both these cliques have their supporters, the gov- ernors of the provinces of central and southern China. In the present con- flict the Ksiang-Si, Anhui and Fukiang will evidently support the Chili party, while Chan-Tso-Ling has already had- negotiations with the representative of Sun-Yat-Sen who has supporters in some parts of the Yunang, Gutchz- housk and Ruah provinces, Thus, there is every prospect that the conflict will develop into a general civil national war. The reasons which might draw Sun-Yat-Sen into this conflict consist in the fact that the Chili clique is a direct menace to him, while the sphere of influence of the Fyntiang groups and of the adherents of the former Anhui club is geographically remote from the Kwantung province. Both Sun-Yat-Sen and Chang-Tso-Ling are fully aware that in the event of their ‘| victory over the Chili party, a conflict between them is inevitable. Sun-Yat-Sen and the Fight of the . Generals The question arises what caused this fight between the militarist cliques and in how far the leader of the na- tional-revolutionary party can be inter- ested in the support of one clique against the other. The answer to the first question is the whole history of civil war in China, from the time of the revolution of 1911, when China, after its dismemberment by the im- perialists, began to be governed by the so-called Tuchun system, namely by military governors general. Since then China practically ceased to exist as a united empire and became divided into a number of subsidiary principal- ities. As to the second question, it can be answered by the fact that the move- ment headed by Sun-Yat-Sen and directed towards the abolition of this Tuchen system is drawing him in- evitably into a conflict with this or that military clique, sometimes join- ing forces with one of them against the other, as strategical considerations require, But the fundamental differ- ence between Sun-Yat-Sen’s fight and the fight of the militarists consists in the fact that, in the process“of this fight, he is emancipating the Chinese masses within the pohere be bir ea fluence, ; : af “We cannot study, | China, only from “the” jiational factors, for” ot vie 3 oe with the fight for. Gdeee ‘between the ‘| imperialists who are using the Chinese imperialists as their medium. In the present case the fight of the Chili clique against other militarist cliques is tantamount to a fight of the Anglo-American capitalists against the relics of the influence of Japanese im- perialists, who in 1915 obtained enorm- ous advantages in the matter of the exploitation of China. It is also tant- amount to the transformation of the anti-Imperialist movement into nation- al civil war. On the other hand, a victory of the Chili clique at the head of which are the agents of Anglo- American capitalism—Tsau-Kung and Wu-Pei-Fu will make imperialist econ- omic penetration and political control over China easier. At the same time the victory of the Chili clique would strengthen militarist reaction within the country. The brutal suppression of the labor movement, the shooting of workers during the Peking-Hankow railwaymen’s strike in’ 1923, the exe cution of labor leaders, ‘the shooting of revolutionary students—all’ this: be magnified;tenfeld in the, victory by the: Chili party...... -.:. At present when revolutionary stu- dents’ and workers’ organizations are the center of the anti-imperialist move. ment, MacDonald, Herriot, Coolidge and the Japanese. imperialist govern- ments would like to-seé the full weight of reaction directed against them. Hence, in spite of the clash of the economic interests of the imperialists of China, there is complete agreement on the question of intervention, which is evidently being prepared by negotia- tions; the soul and initiator of this imperialist attack on China is at this present juncture British imperialism. PREPARATIONS FOR JOINT BAZAAR GO ON ENERGETICALLY (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, Feb. 6—A whole force of comrades is at work ‘mak- ing the last preparations for. the joint bazaar, which takes, ‘place . vat the Lyceum, 86th. 6t.-- and. Third Ave. Feb: 11, 12, 13 and 14 will be red-letter days in the history of the revolutionary movement of New York. The membership of the Workers Party is working to make the ba- Zaar a success. Branches are tak- ing booths and are collecting mater- jal for sale. They have gathered everything from a belt to a phono- graph. Kitchen utensils, clothes, shoes, hats, books, works of art— in short, everything useful that can be converted into cash. The present outlook is that there will be at least 25 booths. The In- den trick maker will be on hand ry day—and ‘his tricks will be interesting for many reasong—but chiefly because they are novel in this part of the world. There will be a printing press at the bazaar, so that every visitor may procure visiting cards and other printed matter, ‘Life in China | “